INTRODUCTORY REPORT SUGGESTING THE OUTLINE OF A SCHEME FOR EXTRAMURAL INTERMENT. TO THE IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE OF THE HON. THE COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON. GENTLEMEN, Under the several clauses of the Metropolitan Burials Act, and under certain clauses of the City Sewers Act 1848, the Commissioners of Sewers, acting as a Burial-Board for the City of London, will be subject to the following responsibilities--viz.: _First_,--That a sufficient extramural burial-place be provided for those classes of persons who have heretofore had right of interment within the City; _Secondly_,--That the facilities of transit and conveyance to such burial-place be commensurate with the purposes for which it is established; _Thirdly_,--That evil no longer accrue to the health of the City from unnecessary delays of interment, or from the keeping of dead bodies in the dwelling-rooms of the poor. * * * * * I. To measure the sufficiency of a burial-place, one must know for what numbers of population it is intended to suffice. Burial-Boards under the new Act are obliged to provide accommodation for all _parishioners_ or _inhabitants_ of the several parishes within their jurisdiction. Under the term ‘parishioners’ as relating to the City, there may be included, I am told, an indefinite number of non-resident rate-payers: and although, at first, interment might not be claimed under the latter head to any considerable extent, yet, with the completion and success of your Cemetery, the applications might year by year become more numerous. From the nature of the case, such claimants would in most instances be of the wealthier classes, and might consequently be expected to apply for special allotments of ground. It seems therefore desirable that you should have some knowledge of the number for whom you may thus be required to provide. I would accordingly suggest as expedient, that a legal opinion should be obtained on your exact liabilities under the law referred to; and especially as to whether the right of burial possessed by non-resident rate-payers does likewise extend to the non-resident households of such rate-payers. In the meantime I will leave this set of claimants out of my argument; assuming that, whenever you have reckoned their number, you will be able, on their account, to add to your general estimate, according to a fixed proportion, the assessment of whatever additional accommodation they may legally require. The number of deaths belonging to the ‘inhabitants’ of the City of London may be more precisely given. It would probably lie, as an average, within 3200 per annum. In attempting to fix the extent of ground required for your purpose in respect of this mortality, I must bring before you some preliminary considerations.